Resuscitation of dormant Mycobacterium tuberculosis by phospholipids or specific peptides

The presence of dormant tubercle bacilli presents a major problem for tuber culosis treatment. The culture supernatant of Mycobacterium tuberculosis wa s previously shown to resuscitate dormant bacilli in vitro. Here we report identification of active components as phospholipids and a tuberculosis pro tein Rv1174c. Remarkably, dormant bacilli from a one year old culture which failed to form any colonies could be resuscitated with peptides derived fr om Rv1174c and formed 10(5-7) colonies/ml. This finding represents the firs t unambiguous demonstration of resuscitation of dormant tubercle bacilli in vitro and may have implication for the study of mycobacterial dormancy and the design of novel strategies for improved treatment of tuberculosis. (C) 2001 Academic Press.